SLS Stock Rises Overnight: Retail Traders Call New AML Survival Data 'Huge' Ahead Of CEO’s Fox Appearance

• Retail investors said that the findings may support expectations for Regal’s control arm.
• Regal is two deaths away from its final survival analysis, while CEO Angelos Stergiou is set to appear on “FOX & Friends” on Friday.
• The study did not evaluate GPS and focused on patients in first remission, making it an indirect benchmark rather than proof that Regal will succeed.

Shares of Sellas Life Sciences (SLS) rose 0.4% in overnight trading heading into Friday after a newly published acute myeloid leukemia (AML) study gave retail investors fresh ammunition in the debate over survival expectations for the drugmaker’s Regal trial.

SLS stock rose 2% on Thursday to close at $12.34, though the shares remained on track to end the week 6% lower. 

New AML Data Draws Focus To SLS Trial

The study, conducted by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and published in Haematologica, examined 362 adults with newly diagnosed AML who achieved a first complete remission but did not undergo stem cell transplantation. Across the full group, median overall survival was 19 months. Among patients receiving lower-intensity treatment with venetoclax, an oral cancer drug commonly used with other therapies to treat older or less-fit AML patients, median overall survival was 16.6 months, compared with 12.5 months without venetoclax. 

Survival was shorter among patients with more aggressive disease. Those classified as adverse risk who received less-intensive treatment lived a median of 10.6 months, while patients who still had detectable leukemia cells after treatment, known as MRD-positive disease, had a median overall survival of 13.5 months.

For Sellas, the findings are supportive of the rationale behind Regal, its Phase 3 trial of GPS in AML patients in second complete remission who are not eligible for transplantation. The data show that survival averages can fall sharply among older, adverse-risk and MRD-positive patients, potentially easing concerns that Regal’s control arm will outperform expectations.

However, the study did not evaluate GPS and focused on patients in first remission, making it an indirect benchmark rather than evidence that Regal will succeed.

SLS Regal Nears Final Survival Analysis

Regal has recorded 78 of the 80 deaths required to trigger its final overall survival analysis. The slower-than-expected event rate has fueled optimism since it suggests patients may be living longer than initially projected. However, Sellas does not yet know whether that delay is being driven by GPS, the control arm or both. The company has entered a quiet period as it prepares for database lock and regulatory work.

Stergiou is scheduled to appear on “FOX & Friends” on Friday to discuss AI in healthcare and cancer immunotherapy. Ahead of the segment, he highlighted the use of computational tools in developing GPS, saying algorithms helped researchers screen potential molecular binders and identify peptide modifications intended to improve immune recognition.

How Do Retail Traders Feel About SLS?

Retail investors focused on the study’s possible implications for Regal’s control arm. Sentiment on Stocktwits for SLS was ‘bearish’ amid a 17% rise in 24-hour message volumes. 

One user called the paper “the absolute most current and accurate information on BAT mOS available” and estimated that non-transplanted, adverse-risk patients in second remission could have a median overall survival of six to eight months. Another user highlighted the study’s 19-month median overall survival across the full CR1 cohort, noting that survival was shorter among patients older than 60.

A third user said that the data supported an eight-month survival estimate for Regal’s best-available-treatment arm and compared the results with earlier GPS studies. A separate user called the paper “absolutely huge,” saying that the CR1 results should serve as a ceiling for survival estimates because “a second remission is shorter and more chemoresistant than a first.”

Meanwhile, another user said that the paper appeared “more bullish” for SLS than Stergiou’s Fox appearance.

SLS stock has surged 571% over the past year. 

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

Read Next: HIMS Stock Climbs Overnight As FDA Advisory Panel Backs 4 Peptides — ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli Goes Short